Roberto Capucci. Perspectives at Villa Manin

Curated by the Capucci Foundation

The exhibition will be a revelation for many: first and foremost for all those who do not know that the foundation that has been guarding the clothes and managing the creative legacy of the master of Italian fashion since 2017 is based precisely at Villa Manin. But the exhibition will also be a discovery for those who have never seen, or do not remember, the magnificent halls of the villa’s perspectives.

Closed during fireproofing works, they will amaze visitors with their fantastic illusionistic perspectives that will create a dialogue with the architectural three-dimensionality that characterises Capucci’s creations.

The gowns chosen for the exhibition, created from the 1980s onwards, are among the maestro’s most sumptuous formal and eveningwear inventions. They are complemented by a selection of true sculptures in the form of dresses. In particular, dresses designed for the centenary of the Venice Biennale and for the Capucci Museum already hosted at Villa Bardini in Florence will be on show. Among the wedding dresses, one can admire the dress inspired by Tiepolo’s fresco ‘La Continenza di Scipione’ at Villa Cordellina in Montecchio Maggiore and also the ‘Red Bride’ created for the exhibition at Palazzo Fortuny (2009). Also on show are ‘Fuoco’, ‘Ventagli’ and ‘Primavera’, the latter characterised by more than one hundred fabric flowers applied on silk organza, in the same style as the famous purple dress created for actress Valentina Cortese and one of the most explicit manifestations on show of the craftsmanship that distinguishes these works.

Placed in the illusionistically decorated rooms by Pietro Oretti, a mysterious and fascinating Bolognese painter known only for his work at the Villa Manin around 1710, Capucci’s dresses will give the impression of bringing back to life the eighteenth-century splendour of the villa, when against the backdrop of the painted perspectives moved ladies in dresses, if not as beautiful, certainly as sumptuous as those of Roberto Capucci.

The exhibition will be completed by a selection of drawings and sketches that will allow the visitor to deepen his imagination and better understand the master’s creative process.